Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Cattle ranching and ecological change in the Kalahari, Botswana
T2 - a hydrological perspective.
AU - Dougill, A. J.
AU - Heathwaite, A. Louise
AU - Thomas, D. S. G.
N1 - Cattle ranching and ecological change in the Kalahari, Botswana: a hydrological perspective. 1 cites: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?num=100&hl=en&lr=&cites=16688516659913745005
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - Changes in land use in semiarid savannas to intensive cattle ranching have been widely equated with changes in vegetation communities, notably bush encroachment. Increased availability of soil water in the subsoil has been assigned as both a cause and a consequence of this ecological change. Here we investigate the applicability of this association in an intensively grazed area of the Kalahari sandveld, Botswana. Studies show that no significant differences exist between profile patterns of soil water availability, or hydraulic conductivity and field capacity, between bush dominant compared to grass-dominant sites. Vegetation changes are determined predominantly by interactions of grazing levels, fire occurrence and natural rainfall variability. Pastoral management strategies should therefore account for the interactions between these variables to prevent convergence of bush dominant areas. Soil water movement in Kalahari soils remains largely restricted to the upper 2-3 m of the soil implying that groundwater recharge is negligible and that important consideration of the extent of groundwater resources is required
AB - Changes in land use in semiarid savannas to intensive cattle ranching have been widely equated with changes in vegetation communities, notably bush encroachment. Increased availability of soil water in the subsoil has been assigned as both a cause and a consequence of this ecological change. Here we investigate the applicability of this association in an intensively grazed area of the Kalahari sandveld, Botswana. Studies show that no significant differences exist between profile patterns of soil water availability, or hydraulic conductivity and field capacity, between bush dominant compared to grass-dominant sites. Vegetation changes are determined predominantly by interactions of grazing levels, fire occurrence and natural rainfall variability. Pastoral management strategies should therefore account for the interactions between these variables to prevent convergence of bush dominant areas. Soil water movement in Kalahari soils remains largely restricted to the upper 2-3 m of the soil implying that groundwater recharge is negligible and that important consideration of the extent of groundwater resources is required
M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)
SN - 1-901502-05-8
VL - 240
SP - 469
EP - 477
BT - Sustainability of Water Resources under Increasing Uncertainty
A2 - Rosbjerg, Dan
A2 - Boutayeb, Nour-Eddine
A2 - Gustard, Alan
A2 - Kundzewicz, Zbigniew W.
A2 - Rasmussen, Peter F.
PB - IAHS Publications
ER -